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PORTLAND, Ore. - A Northeast Portland woman was reunited with her beloved bike - nearly a month after it was stolen off her front porch - and she has a Good Samaritan to thank for getting it back to her.

Whoever stole the bike ditched it on the side of Art Hillsbery's home. He suspected it was a stolen bike and called police.

Now of course, at that point Hillsbery could have wiped his hands of the whole thing and let the police take it from there.

But he looked over stolen bike listings on BikePortland.org and found one that mentioned a Columbus, Ohio registration sticker. And then he tracked down the owner, Cara Althoff, to tell her the good news.

"It kind of restores your faith in humanity," said Althoff. "I mean, the fact that this person found the bike and didn't just leave it at that - they went through all of the steps and tracked me down. It's like every person who's lost a bike and had it stolen - it's their dream that someone would do that."

Had Hillsbery not taken the extra step, Althoff may have never seen her bike again. Even though police had the information about the sticker, they say the sheer volume of stolen bike cases leaves them very little time to cross check information like that. Instead, police rely on serial numbers.

Althoff did not know the serial number of her bike, which police say you should have written down somewhere in case yours is stolen. The most common place you will find the serial number is under the bike where the pedals come together.